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Book Reviews

The Chicago School

How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business

August 18, 2009

Energized Economics:From 1969 through 2004, fifty-seven economists were awarded the Nobel Prize. Nine of the recipients were members of the faculty, or associated with, the University of Chicago.

In The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business (Agate, 400 pages, hardcover, $35.00, 978-1-932841-14-5), Johan Van Overtveldt, director of VKW Metena, A Belgium think tank, presents a scholarly appraisal of the economics department that through its tradition of excellence has produced much important research, which has become the basis for many public policies. Since the university’s 1892 founding, faculty members have advanced economics as a rigorous science and are likely to believe that society benefits the most in a free market economy. However, Keynesians and other non-neo classicists have been welcomed to the department, provided they adhere to its standards of rigorous scholarship and excellent teaching.

This challenging and informative study of the men and women who created and maintained the traditions of one of the nation’s leading economics department will intrigue economists and higher education practitioners with or without ties to the university.